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By Robert O'Sullivan In 2015, James Franco appeared in nine films--all of which (apart from one) failed both critically and financially. So, naturally, when in late 2015 I heard Franco was undertaking the drastic responsibility of not only directing an adaptation of The Disaster Artist, a memoir about the hilariously awful 2003 cult hit The Room, but also starring as Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director, producer, star and possible vampire behind the infamous trainwreck, I was very sceptical. Nonetheless, when the film hit theatre screens in December 2017, me and a few of my close friends, all of us superfans of The Room, made the trip up to The Lighthouse in Dublin and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst. Fortunately, to our delight, The Disaster Artist was a delight of a film, filled with laughs and references to the cult hit, while also humanising the story and making it a touching tale of friendship. The film, of course, centres around Tommy (James Franco), but also around his co-lead in the 2003 film, Greg Sestero (Dave Franco), who co-wrote the memoir. The film begins in an acting class in the late 90s, where it is clear that Greg lacks the necessary confidence to lose himself in a role, often being too aware of his own surroundings. It is at this point that the mysterious Tommy volunteers to do a scene, and in contrast to Greg, Tommy lacks any sense of self-awareness, throwing himself into the deep-end and committing fully to an over the top, primal scream-fuelled acting style. It is from this point that their friendship blossoms, as Greg realises he can use Tommy as a medium for gaining more confidence on stage. The duo embarks on a move to Los Angeles to try make it big, but while Greg finds an agent and goes on many auditions – although with generally poor results, Tommy finds it impossible to find an agency or any acting coaches willing to take him on. Frustrated, Tommy decides that he will simply make his own movie and stun the world with his filmmaking that they all rejected. And boy, did he do just that. Where The Disaster Artist thrives is in its portrayal of Tommy. While it would have been easy to make him out to be a crazy manchild with too much money and have the audience just laugh at his sorry attempts at film-making, the screenwriters, who went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, chose to look at him from a different angle as just a man with a passion who everyone rejected. The film suggests that while it’s easy to laugh at a clown, it is also important to look at why they are in the makeup. When he decides to make a film of his own, the audience is not laughing at his misguided confidence, but rather rooting for him and supporting him after seeing him get hit down again and again, time after time. Franco understands this complex form of Tommy, and portrays with him a childlike innocence and naivete, while also getting the iconic voice just right, a feat which cannot be overlooked. It is easy to see why Franco was attracted to the project. Like Tommy, he tends to be a little bit offbeat. Both of them let their ambition drive them instead of reason. While passion is always coursing through the veins of each and every project they do, that passion does not always translate to quality on screen. And like Tommy, Franco is not afraid to laugh at himself and go along with the joke. But this connection between the two allows Franco to tap into a deeper level of the pseudo-filmmaker, his gaze alone will often convey how he is deep in his own subconscious while also not being self-aware in any capacity.
Franco invited a handful of his friends to be apart of the film also, so the crew of The Room is star-studded in its own right, with Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, Paul Sheer and Academy Award-nominee Jacki Weaver making up the ensemble, and while each of them have their moment to shine, like Weaver delivering the iconic “I definitely have breast cancer” line, the Sestero-Wiseau relationship remains the centrepiece to the film and it never deviates too far from the thematic throughline. Even after the duo have a fight and go their separate ways, they reconnect for the premiere at the end of the film. The premiere goes about as well as you would imagine the premiere of The Room would go, with the audience first reacting in horror to the awful film-making, deadpan acting and gratuitous frames of Wiseau’s naked body. As the film progresses, however, the audience comes to find humour in the imperfections and by the end they love watching the film. While Tommy initially bursts into tears and marches out of the screening, Greg explains to him that he made a crowd-pleasing film and that he should simply embrace that. It’s finally here where Tommy begins to garner self-awareness and takes pride in his imperfect attempt at a film. I think that this film is essential viewing for any film student, or really any student in general, to learn that things don’t always turn out the way you want them to. Sometimes you go in trying to make a Tennessee Williams-esque drama and you inadvertently make one of the funniest so-bad-it’s-good films of all time. The most important thing is to own it and take it in your stride rather than shy away from it and pretend it never happened. Because if Tommy Wiseau did that, no one would ever have had that rooftop scene to re-enact
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